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We have completed the design and testing of a custom high-resolution objective with a long working distance. The microscope consists of a commercial aspheric lens plus a meniscus lens and has a diffraction-limited resolution of 1.2 micron at 766 nm. We have performed some preliminary tests by recording the in-situ density distribution of a strongly attractive 41K-87Rb mixture. The measured size of the cloud is in agreement with the simulated density profiles in this interaction regime. We are going to detect our quantum mixture through its phase diagram with micrometric resolution! |
Considering the hurdles of experiments with more than one atomic species, the temptation arises of rephrasing Arthur L. Schawlow: "Double-species Bose-Einstein condensates are condensates with one species too many". We think otherwise. Quantum mixtures allow the investigation of a wealth of genuinely quantum phenomena: mixed phases of superfluids and Mott insulators, impurities and polarons, chemistry at zero-temperature.